12/17/15 12/17/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the jury in the criminal case of officer william porter ended its deliberations without being able to reach a unanimous verdict. in of us, if we believe justice, must have respect for the outcome of the judicial process. this is our american system of justice.

beena mistrial has declared in baltimore in the case of the first police officer charged in the case of freddie gray. he died in april from injuries sustained in police custody. we will speak with a lawyer and reporter who attended the trial as well as former naacp , president ben jealous. then the first female mayor of flint makes a stunning declaration. >> i declare a state of emergency in the city of flint effective december 14, 2015. amy: the mayor of flint declares a state of emergency in response to a man-made disaster -- lead poisoning in the city's water supply. this comes after the city's unelected emergency manager switched flint's water supply from detroit's system to the long-polluted flint river. we will speak to the reporter who helped prove the city was being poisoned with its own water as well as a flint , resident who was diagnosed with lead and copper poisoning along with her three children. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in baltimore, a judge has declared a mistrial in the case of the first police officer to be charged in the death of freddie gray after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges against officer william porter. gray died in april from injuries sustained in the back of a police van. gray's family and attorney say his voice box was crushed and his spine was 80% severed at his neck. a preliminary autopsy report showed the 25-year-old african-american died of a spinal injury. attorneys are expected to meet this morning to decide if porter should be tried again. gray's death in april sparked large protests. on wednesday, scores of baltimore residents took to the streets again to protest the hung jury. at least two people were arrested. we'll go to baltimore for more on the case after headlines.

meanwhile, in chicago, white police officer jason van dyke has been formally indicted on six counts of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old laquan mcdonald more than a year ago. dashcam video, only recently released by court order, shows the teenager posing no threat and walking away from the officers at a distance as officer van dyke jumps out of his police car and opens fire, striking mcdonald 16 times. the case has sparked massive protests across chicago, the ouster of former chicago police chief garry mccarthy, and increasing calls for chicago mayor rahm emanuel's resignation. on wednesday, as mayor emanuel was visiting the boys' charter school urban prep charter academy in the southside neighborhood of englewood, students began chanting, "16 shots," the slogan many protesters have been using in calling for emanuel's resignation.

[chanting] amy: mayor emanuel abruptly left after the assembly. new york has agreed to massively overhaul the system of solitary confinement in state prisons, following a three-year legal battle by the new york civil liberties union. currently, new york state holds 4000 prisoners in solitary confinement in 6-foot by 10-foot cells for 23 hours a day, often for years. the new agreement seeks to dramatically reduce the number of people in solitary confinement and the length of their stay. it imposes a maximum sentence of three months in solitary for most disciplinary violations, and bars the use of solitary confinement for first-time violations for drug use or possession. new york civil liberties union executive director donna lieberman wrote -- "no prison system of this size has ever taken on such sweeping and comprehensive reforms to solitary confinement at one time. today marks the end of the era where incarcerated new yorkers are simply thrown into the box to be forgotten under torturous

conditions as a punishment of first resort." federal prosecutors have announced they will file criminal charges against a friend and former neighbor of one of syed rizwan farook, one of the suspects in the san bernardino shooting massacre, which killed 14 people at the inland regional center on december 2. officials have accused enrique marquez of buying two assault rifles three years ago, which authorities say were used in the shooting. meanwhile, fbi director james comey said suspect tashfeen malik did not pledge allegiance to isis on social media, contrary to previous reports. many news outlets had previously reported that malik had posted on facebook pledging allegiance to isis, citing unnamed government officials. speaking wednesday, comey said these reports were false, but said suspects syed rizwan farook and tashfeen malik had communicated about their plans in private messages. he did not say the messages were encrypted. speaking at a news conference in

new york city wednesday, comey also said there was no evidence that the suspects had any links to any organized terrorist groups. >> we still see in san bernardino, no indication of direct contact with foreign terrorist organization -- obviously, that would include any direction from foreign tourist organization. so far, we have found no evidence of posting on social media by either of them at that period of time and thereafter reflecting their commitment to jihad or martyrdom. i've seen some reports on that and that is a garble. we have not found that kind of thing. amy: congress is voting on a $1.1 trillion budget deal today, which includes a provision to end the decades-old ban on exporting u.s.-produced crude oil. lifting the crude oil export ban has long been a demand of the oil industry. companies including bp, exxon mobil, chevron, hess, conocophilips, chesapeake energy , and marathon oil have all

lobbied for bills to lift the ban within the last few years. environmental group oil change international says lifting the ban will incentivize further domestic oil production and is "a disaster for the climate." meanwhile, the federal reserve says it's lifting interest rates for the first time since before -- since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. federal reserve president janet yellen said interest rate hike s reflects the economic recovery has "clearly come a long way." in response, democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders disagrees, writing in -- "at a time when real unemployment is nearly 10% and youth unemployment is off the charts, we need to do everything possible to create millions of good-paying jobs and raise the wages of the american people. the fed should act with the same sense of urgency to rebuild the disappearing middle class as it did to bail out wall street banks seven years ago."

bernie sanders, the presidential candidate. in turkey, at least seven people have been killed by turkish security forces, as authorities have declared a curfew across the mainly kurdish southeast region. at least two of those killed were protesters who were demonstrating against a police crackdown. the deaths come amid an escalating turkish police and military crackdown across kurdish communities in turkey's southeast. a resident of the southeast town who did not give their name for safety reasons spoke out against repression. i find these policies you roni us. the pressure on kurdish people has become unacceptable. what is it that we cannot share? enough is enough. we want peace. amy: in nevada, a media mystery may have been revealed. fortune magazine first reported that major republican party donor sheldon adelson has bought nevada's largest daily

newspaper, "the las vegas review-journal," for $140 million. last week's purchase was reportedly arranged by adelson's son-in-law. week oflation follows a questions and uncertainty as the adelson family attempted to keep the purchase secret, even from the newspaper's own staff. a reporter tweeted last week -- republican presidential candidates have returned to the campaign trail following tuesday's republican national -- presidential debate. in arizona, maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio, whose office the u.s. justice department has said holds a "systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections," introduced candidate donald trump at a rally by reminding the audience that the two of them are both prominent birthers who question the validity of president obama's u.s. birth certificate. >> we have something in common.

the birth certificate investigation, which is still immigration,llegal and one more thing we share, birthday. amy: donald trump has been one of the leaders of the birther movement. in 2011, he claimed to have sent investigators to hawaii. in illinois, the private christian school wheaton college has suspended a tenured professor who has begun wearing a headscarf in solidarity with her muslim neighbors. political science professor larycia hawkins, who is christian, posted on facebook -- "i stand in religious solidarity with muslims because they, like me, a christian, are people of the book. and as pope francis stated last week, we worship the same god." in response, wheaton college suspended hawkins, saying she

a chicago church wednesday, hawkins said that wearing the headscarf is embodied solidarity. >> theoretical solidarity is not solidarity. being with people requires sacrificing our bodies. and that is what i'm doing. and i want to turn back on that. i won't look back. i will continue to do this until christmas. amy: and five years ago today, tunisian street vendor mohamed set himself on fire. on december 17, 2010, the 26-year-old protested as he tried to self reason bush doubles. the act led to protests across tunisia. it eventually brought about the ouster of president zine el abidine ben ali and inspired activists followed by uprising that became known as the arab spring. and those are some of the

headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in baltimore where a mistrial has been declared in the case of a police officer charged in the death of freddie gray. gray died in april from a spinal injury sustained while being transported in the back of a police van. gray's family and attorney say his voice box was crushed and his spine was 80% severed at his neck. six officers were charged in freddie gray's death. officer william porter was the first one to go to trial, charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. ,amy: on wednesday a judge declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges after three days of deliberation. attorneys are expected to meet this morning to decide if officer porter should be tried again. gray's death in april sparked large protests in baltimore. on scores of baltimore residents wednesday, took to the streets

again to protest the hung jury. at least two people were arrested. billy murphy, an attorney for the gray family, described the mistrial as a temporary bump on the road to justice. >> the people who say this is not just as simply don't understand how the system works. sometimes there are lt verdicts. sometimes there are not guilty verdicts. and sometimes their temporary hung juries where no verdict could be reached in a case that are normally tried again. so this is just a temporary bump on the road to justice. it happens. it is part of how the system works. amy: we are joined by two guests who were inside the courtroom on wednesday. doug colbert is a professor of law at the university of maryland school of law. roberto alejandro is a reporter with on background dot com who -- onbackground.com. what does a hung jury mean? >> it means all 12 jurors could

not agree on a verdict for any of the charges. and what is interesting is some of the pundits continue to see this as a victory for the defendant. i don't see it that way, amy. i attended every single day of the trial. i was there for all of the testimony. the prosecution presented a very strong case against freddie gray. in many ways, he is fortunate that he was not convicted of all of the charges. and the jury continues to ask and consider what officer porter left freddie gray in such a dangerous situation when he failed to seatbelt him and when he refused to provide him medical care, even though freddie gray had asked for care and told him he had difficulty breathing? so i think one of the real values that we take from this trial, first of all, if it's the prosecution in a much stronger position for a retrial.

and i expect that officer porter only received a temporary reprieve and will be tried a second time. but it also allows the public to gain transparency about what happened to freddie gray. in a many ways, provides opportunity to engage in real reform of police practice. amy: just to be clear, they could have -- they could have convicted him on several of the four charges, is that right and hung on others? but they were hung on all four charges? >> yes, and what that suggests to me, and of course this is my educated speculation, is that there were probably a minority, perhaps one or two jurors who were holdouts. i expect at some point we will hear that the majority of the jurors voted to convict. but when you have hard-core people on a jury who refuse to convict on any of the charges,

it led the judge to declare a mistrial. nermeen: you were in the court every day, doug. could you talk about what the response was when the judge declared a mistrial? >> well, the media, whom i spent a good deal of time with trying to counter what i considered a strong pro-police perspective from other people who are commenting, took off and, of course, wrote their reports. i think what is really important here, though, is the media perspective -- and i suddenly don't include all of the journalists, but there is always been a very strong criticism prosecutor foral doing something that very few prosecutors do. and that is to bring charges and to be seriously determined to convict each of the officers.

more than 98% of the police officers involved in the 2700 killings of people over the past 10 years have not had to face criminal charges. so our local prosecutor, marilyn mosby, is one of the very few who decided to bring charges and to be serious about doing so. amy: roberto alejandro, you are there as well, reporter with onbackground.com. what most surprised you about the case presented against porter as well as his overall defense? think the thing that to me that was most interesting was really more on the defensive side because i feel like their strategy ran on two tracks. one dealt with the factual issue of where mr. gray was injured along the six stops the wagon may that day when he was arrested, but there was another track where they effectively, i

think, for the baltimore police department on trial and said, look, this is a department that doesn't prepare its officers well through its training process in the academy, it has sort of a lackadaisical professional culture, and we should not hold a 26 are old officer with about 2.5 years experience when this incident happened responsible for the culture of the entire police department. and it was interesting to watch the defense in this case essentially make a sort of ethical/structural argument as they were also saying, don't convict this man, show the city that the whole damn system is an guilty as hell. nermeen: roberto, could you talk about what new evidence and testimonies that were introduced that shed more light on what actually happened to freddie gray? >> i don't know that there was a time of new evidence or anything that was particularly surprising that came up at the trial. you know, the state brought the chief medical examiner, dr. carol allen who performed the autopsy as well as medical

export -- expert, and they both presented a narrative in which mr. gray was injured between the second and fourth stops. i think that is more or less the sense that we have had leading up to the trial. he was injured, obviously, somewhere along the way. the state presented its case in the defense presented inside and suggested the injury had two of occurred later, giving officer porter less opportunity to intervene. so do my mind, i don't know that we sell really new facts emerge, that shed light in one direction or the other. we had two competing narratives about where the injury had occurred in light of the facts that were probably largely established. nermeen: doug, i would ask about one of the charges, namely, misconduct in office against officer porter. judge williams said it was not enough to show that porter failed to follow the apartment regulations. instead, the jury had to find that he acted "with an evil motive in bad faith."

when the judge was asked to expand what that meant, he refused to do so. could you talk about the significance of that? >> well, the judge does not want to give further direction to the jury during deliberations. and i think the real stumbling block for at least one of the jurors was whether officer porter represented the reasonable office because he did what many other officers do, namely, failing to protect his prisoner or whether the reasonable officer is the one who follows what the police commissioner tells every officer that they must do, which is, seatbelt. one of the interesting things here, officer porter told the investigating detectives only five days after that freddie gray could not breathe and was in real danger. at trial, he said that statement the freddie gray made was made

much earlier. he also told the jury that it was too dangerous to seatbelt freddie gray. when indeed, just seconds before that, he lifted freddie gray up only inches away from him. and if freddie gray was able to do anything, he could have very easily grabbed the officer's gun. at that point, freddie gray was paralyzed and he could not do anything. and that is what allowed the officer to conduct the lifting up that he did. amy: professor, what does this mean for the next trial that is , the driver of the police ran? if there is a hung jury for porter and if today they, what, have a choice of either saying they will retry him or what else could they do? could they grabbed him immunity? if they're going to retry him,

that means he would not be available to testify in the caesar goodson case. >> well, they could ask for porter's retrial to take place before goodson if they wanted to do that. and that would put considerable pressure on quarter to decide, what's the best course of action for him to take. i think yes to be very concerned with just how strong the prosecution case was and how ineffective in many ways his own testimony must have been to many of the jurors. so they can offer him a negotiated plea, they could grant him immunity -- which would allow him to testify for the prosecution. but of course, we know there is a code of silence among police officers that is going to move officer porter to perhaps not do what is best for him. but at this point, i expect the prosecutions cases woman ford. they learned a great deal about

the defense case. there are ways they can improve their execution. also ways they can -- the defense will become stronger for the next trial as well. amy: roberto alejandro, you're known for not only reporting in the courtroom but on the streets. the response of the community after the announcement of the mistrial? after the announcement of the mistrial when over to go more homes, the housing project where mr. gray grew up. i was a the mood was largely subdued, but the persons i spoke to largely expressed hurt, a sense that the jurors who represent the citizens of baltimore in this trial don't care about their community. and that was the message they received, as well as an acute feeling that the system of justice that mr. porter faced was very different than the one they tend to face. and many people talked about the fact that these officers are all receiving different charges, and

that is not an experience they generally have when they are at the wrong place at the wrong time. if you're in the area, you're likely to face the same charges as your codefendant. there is an acute sense of that that the system is lopsided, especially when it comes to poor black residents in baltimore city. nermeen: some black lives matter activists were less critical of the verdict. with said in an interview the "new york times" -- "this is a hung jury; it's not an acquittal. that's important. the prosecution resonated with the jury in some capacity -- and that is undeniable." so could you respond to that, roberto? was that the since you had from the people in the community that you spoke to? >> no. i think you have to remember this is a community that is fairly tightknit and they lost somebody that i think was cared for a great deal in that neighborhood. so the sense there is that

justice is something rarely that they receive and that this is another example of yet again the justice system not delivering on its promises were persons like them are concerned. i understand, especially the clip we played earlier from mr. murphy, the justice system plays out this way sometimes and a hung jury is not the same as not guilty or as a verdict at all, obviously, and they can retry the case. but mr. gray does not get to retry his arrest. and i think that permeates the understanding of most residents what baltimore -- with baltimore right now. amy: thank you for being with us roberto alejandro is a reporter , with onbackground.com who has been attending officer william porter's trial. and doug colbert . when we come back, we will speak with ben jealous about police departments, not only in baltimore, but around the country. what kind of change is happening, how are they

remaining the same and more. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "baltimore," nina simone. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. when we come back from the next break, we are going to flint, michigan, to talk about a state of emergency that has been declared by the first woman mayor of flint. why? it involves the water supply. what does water and democracy have to do with each other? you will find out. and now we're staying in maryland. nermeen: from baltimore to ferguson to new york, wednesday was a major day for criminal justice news. in baltimore, a mistrial has been declared in the case of one of the police officers charged in the death of freddie gray. he died in april from a spinal injury sustained while being transported in the back of a police van. meanwhile in ferguson, missouri, officials say that reach the outlines of a deal with the justice department that would force changes to the city's police department and head off a civil rights lawsuit alleging years of unconstitutional policing. york on the state

has agreed to overhaul the system of solitary confinement in state prisons following a three-year legal battle with the new york civil liberties union. talk more about this, we're joined by benjamin jealous a , senior fellow at the center for american progress. he's the former naacp president and ceo. welcome back to democracy now! let's start with where you are in baltimore. you have this hung jury, a mistrial. 12 jurors, believe eight of them were black, four were quite, trying a black police officer in the death of freddie gray, and african-american resident of baltimore who lived not far from where william porter lived. and you talk about the significance of the mistrial, the issue of race and policing in this country? mistrial in some ways, oddly, is good news in as much as it means that the prosecutor's argument was getting traction with many

jurors. in these sorts of cases, cops are about half as likely to be convicted when charged with the same crimes as civilians. in this case, murder. thet does suggest that prosecutors were perhaps being more successful than prosecutors are in most places. and the fact is that most of the time when you go to a second trial, the person is convicted. so there is reason to be hopeful that justice will be done for freddie gray. nermeen: ben jealous, you have been working on recommendations for reforming the baltimore police department. could you talk about what some of the recommendations are that you have been making? >> the first one, we have to far more bad cops. second, we have to stop imposing a gag order on victims of brutality. to bottom line is, we have increase trust. we're in the city that has murders going up and on the other hand a sustained state of

horrible police brutality cases. and the reality is, we have to morease trust to solve homicides, but we're not going to increase trust until people can trust that the cops will treat them fairly and not beat them up or kill them. nermeen: what are some of the recommendations you make toward that end? >> first, far more bad cops. two, get rid of the gag order on victims of brutality. three, we have to roll out the body cameras even faster. we also have to shift, frankly, to more of a, you know, we have to shift the priority from low-level drug offenses to serious crimes. those are the four big ones that we have been focused on. we also have a need for just basic transparency. we found out this summer that most of -- excuse me, many of the precincts were closed after

7:00 p.m. and the young man who figure that out and exposed it was told because, quite frankly, it is dangerous after 7:00 p.m. well, that is why we need the precincts opened the people did not know because unlike los angeles, we do not publish the practices and policies of the cops where folks can find them and we need to start doing that. amy: in the testimony around william porter, and you think you will find us in the other cases, they defend themselves by criticizing the police department so that you gain more information about how the police department works. >> you know, look. that's right. and the reality is, the department here has a lot of work that needs to be done to make it even more effective. we are the 26th largest city. we have the eighth largest department.

quite frankly, we should be getting more value from it as citizens here. we should feel like they are some of the best prepared a most professional on the planet. and unfortunately, the way in which this department has continued to tolerate that -- that officers and hide their misdeeds and, quite frankly, not been as effective as they could be in getting killers off the street, has let people really wanting more on all sides. nermeen: one of your recommendations, ben jealous, is to have police cameras used in the baltimore police department. they already have a pilot program testing that. what is your response to that? >> well, we have a pilot program. it takes four years to get fully out there. when we have seen similar cities do it in six months. what is even more concerning is that they want the cops that full control of the data rather

than for the city to own it. in the city needs to own that data so that it can be used not just a prosecution, but also in defense. and quite frankly, so the city council and the mayor can actually have line of sight into what the officers are doing. amy: can you talk about what is happening right now in ferguson, missouri? what kind of deal has been reached with the authorities with the police department? >> look, this deal will provide for more training. it will let folks kind of be sort of trust the federal government will stay engaged in going to monitor and look over the department for some time, increased transparency. and that is a reason for hope. the most important thing in ferguson is for the activist in the street of ferguson to really stay engaged. this a plea makes it easier to

reform their department. this is not the change, if you will, we are seeking, just creates a better context for making change happen. nermeen: your written recently about some of the reforms that were undertaken in the cincinnati police department after officers killed the 19-year-old african-american timothy thomas in 2000 one. could you talk about what some of those reforms were and how they have impacted policing in cincinnati? >> look, you know, i can recall going back to cincinnati to actually study the department after the reforms were starting to be made. that nowsee is a city has begun to move in the right direction. the reality is, we're seeing across the country the disrupted and powerful force of everybody having a video camera in their pocket. i mean, even the reforms that we were making back in the early 2000's, quite frankly, were not enough and what we're saying on

video -- seeing on video from cities across the country, including many in ohio, these days, is we need to push further. startedhe things they to do is get people out of their cars and talking to people, building relationships, being more transparent about policies will stop frankly, being more focused on getting bad cops off the street, better training around use of force. those are many of the reforms that need to happen. at the same time as a country, we have to brace ourselves for the reality that we are going to continue to see more of the worst of what happens in our streets are the people who have sworn to protect and respect as simply because everybody now has a video camera in their pocket. the good news is that the sort of transparency, quite frankly shame, that makes possible, will lead to change.

light changes things. visibility changes things. and with us finally saying what so many officers have done in the past but were able to deny that they could no longer, frankly, deny as painful as a country, but it does give us reason to hope that better days are in front of us. amy: ben jealous, in chicago, do you think the police killing of laquan mcdonald, now the officer has six first-degree murder charges against him, but now there is calls for the mayor to resign. it was all caps hush-hush. laquan was killed more than year ago. just yesterday, mayor emanuel was at a charter school in the kit started chanting "16 shots." do you think this could lead to the resignation of mayor emanuel? >> i'm not sure what will happen. i really hope folks continue to find out what actually happened. the reality is that the black community played a critical role in putting him back in office.

and so it would make sense, if you will, that somebody on his team would try to hide this. we need to know whether it was him, whether it was summit he also. yes, i think activists in the city should keep the heat turned up as high as possible until we know what actually happened. if the mayor actually intentionally acted to keep this from public view in order to get back in office, then, yes, he should step down. but until we know that, we need to just keep pushing for the full truth to come out. have beenealous, you long involved with the issue of executions in the united states. a new report shows executions in this country have dropped to their lowest level in a quarter of a century. 20 eight executions carried out this year, 13 took place in texas, six in missouri, five in georgia. a total of 49 new death

sentences were imposed this year, the lowest number since the early 1970's. can you talk about the significance of this and if you think we will see the end of the death penalty in the united states, something you have been pushing for state-by-state? >> look, we are close. we can see the end. it will happen, amy, in my lifetime and in yours. is we have tol keep pushing -- is real is we have to keep pushing. as activists, we can take pride that campaigns have forced this country to think about what we do in the dark, typically, and a remote prison, in a remote room where we execute people and do something that no other western country does. all of our peers have abandoned it. we need to, too. what you're seeing now, at first we saw public opinion fall after

the too much doubt campaign around the case of troy davis, the man he was actually innocent but was executed nonetheless in georgia, and now you are starting to see that same drop in public opinion have an impact on juries, have an impact on judges. this is what we call the evolving standard of decency. our country is catching up with his own values, catching up with the values of the rest of the western world. and that is good news. i think we should all take heart that as a country we can continue to use all. and that is ultimately on tough criminal issues. the only thing that can really give us hope. nermeen: before we conclude, on another criminal justice issue, here in new york, the state has agreed to overhaul the system of solitary confinement in state prisons following a three-year legal battle by the new york civil liberties union. the to comment on the significance of that? >> this is huge. i think it is hard for most to understand. we want to believe the people in solitary confinement are just

the worst monsters in our society. the reality is much more complex. often times, just people with basic mental problems who find themselves in jail and offended a guard and are put into solitary. in a state like new york, could have remained and a six by 10 box for years with virtually

and that is why it is important the aclu has done with the of done in so many instances and chosen to advocate for people that everybody else would rather not think about were quite likely, would rather pretend or something other than they are. often times new york state, what was found was very mentally ill people who were put into jail or prison for very basic crimes, ended up in solitary confinement as if they were the worst monsters in the world simply because a guard did not want to deal with this person plus mental problems and found it easier to just lock them away in a box for years. it is good that the aclu brought this challenge of the judge saw the light in this practice will be entered. amy: it is the new york civil liberties union. ben jealous, thank you for being with us. foror fellow at the center american progress, the former naacp president and ceo. thank you for joining us from baltimore. when we come back, water, democracy and flint, michigan. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "water no get enemy," fela kuti. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. a shout out to the students who are here today from the little red schoolhouse in new york city. nermeen: we turn now to flint michigan where the city's mayor made a stunning declaration on monday. >> i declare a state of emergency in the city of flint effective december 14, 2015. nermeen: the state of emergency was declared to address a man-made disaster -- lead poisoning in the city's water supply. last year, the city's unelected emergency manager switched the city's water source from the detroit system to the long polluted flint river in an attempt to save money. michigan has the most sweeping emergency management laws in the country, which allow the government to appoint a single person to run financially troubled cities. 2013-2014, 52% of michigan's african-american residents lived under emergency management compared to only 2% of white residents. these unelected emergency managers have the power to break union contracts, shut down fire

departments, is all public school systems, and as in flint, switch the source of the city's drinking water. amy: a study released in september found the proportion of children under five with elevated lead levels in their blood nearly doubled following the switch. flint residents filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city and state of endangering their health by exposing them to dangerous lead levels in their tap water. despite switching back to the detroit water supply in october, after enormous outcry, newly elected mayor karen weaver said lead levels remain higher than the federal threshold in many homes. she said not enough has been done to address the crisis. >> and so far what we have had that we have the filter program, we have talked about exposure -- don't get me wrong, we need all of that. nermeen: earlier this year, the aclu of michigan released a mini

documentary about the water crisis in flint called "hard to , swallow." this begins with pastor alfred harris. ofon one side was the city flint's finances. on the other side, the health of the citizens of flint. >> we had three or four boy water advisories. >> muscle stiffness, hair loss, soreness. >> my family broke out in a rash. it looks like scabies, but wasn't scabies. two we are joined by guests, curt guyette helped expose the lead contamination and also resident melissa mays, she and her children had been diagnosed with lead and copper poisoning. she is founder of water you fighting for?, a flint, michigan-based research and

advocacy organization founded around the city's water crisis. tell us how you discovered what was taking place. how did flint, which for years had gotten her water from detroit, why was this switch made and then even when the switch was made, described the water, what residents were finding, and what eventually happened. >> well, as you said in your introduction, the switch was made because in unelected state appointed emergency manager had total control over the city. and in order to save money, the decision was made to switch from the detroit system -- which they had been on for 50 years -- to the flint river. is worth theer corroded. and compounding that problem was the state's decision, their inexplicable decision, not to add corrosion control phosphates as detroit does. so they went from a situation where the water was clean and

safe to where it was dangerous and more in need of corrosion control than ever, and they inexplicably stopped using it. and the corrosive water without the corrosion control phosphates in it, just began tearing up the pipes and destroying the biofilm that has been built up that kept the lead from leaching into the water. in a began leaching into the water. how i found out about this is that this is a citizen-driven thing. it was the activists, people like melissa, they kept pushing and pushing, refused to believe the claims by the city and state that the water was safe. there is an unsung hero in all nameds, nepa employee miguel who took a personal interest in flint, went there and began to investigate, found out what was going on, found out what was going on with the

corrosion in the lead leaching into the water. he gave a copy of that memo to one of the residents that he had been working with, leeanne walters, and because of that, the documentary we produced, taking the concerns seriously, leeanne trusted us to investigate and gave the memo to us, and we published it. and that set off a chain reaction of events that led us to where we are now. nermeen: melissa mays, can you talk about when he first learned that was a problem with your water supply? >> a few months after the switch, we had already noticed rashes on my kids arms, their back, my face. they were different because you could not put any kind of lotion or cream on it without it turning. it felt like straight up chemical burns. everyone snow while, our water were turned bright blue or yellow and we had no idea why. they kept telling us the water was fine. we had three boil advisories which were not well published.

we did not find out until the third one we have been tracking ladenoking with e. coli water. a lot of resident started coming to the city council meetings and talking about how their water was brown and orange because there were some days it was malec a sewer and some days it would smell like an old pond and some days you're cap water smelled like a certain pull. we knew there were problems, we just did not realize how bad until we received notice in january -- nine months after the switch -- that for the previous nine months, our water was also full of a carcinogenic byproduct . and that is with the over coronation interacting with the organic compounds in our water. when we saw -- only got that notice, it had enough so we started protesting. we wanted answers. we called for meetings. we called for actual research being done. and they would not give is or could not give us any answers. so people were getting sick

across the city. we all had similar symptoms with , muscle pain, cramps. this is before we knew about the lead. it was already a downward spiral from there. september, scientists from virginia tech in virginia held a news conference to share their findings from the tests they ran on the water samples. afterward two city officials , faced questions from the aclu and flint residents. in this clip from the aclu mini-documentary, "hard to swallow," howard croft, flint's director of public utilities, tries to explain why the city switched to the flint river for its water. >> talking about detroit that had over $1 billion of infrastructure costs coming that we could see and we work kicked off their system. >> of a letter saying the city of flint has decided not to return -- not to continue using

detroit water. correct? is that correct? >> i think evaluations have gone on up to the state level on what the best course of action would be for the city of flint and that was the determination. >> offered to the governor's office? >> amy: curt guyette, can you talk about the significance of this? >> for a long time, a variety officials kept claiming falsely that they did not have any choice, that detroit kicked them off the detroit system and because of that there were forced use the flint river. that was not true. on theconomic decision part of the emergency manager appointed by governor schneider to leave the detroit system. but they did not want to take responsibility by lying and saying they did not have any choice, there was no culpability

part.ir and they are culpable because it was a conscious decision, decision made purely to save money and for no other reason. the significance of that is we to that lie. they can no longer say they did not have a choice. it was a choice, and they are responsible for this disaster. that is the significance of that. nermeen: in september during the heat of the mayor's race in flint, then-challenger, now mayor karen weaver, a clinical psychologist, spoke about the affects of lead poisoning, especially on children. >> [indiscernible]

nermeen: melissa mays, can you talk about how your children and you have been impacted by this? all three arem very bright. they had a great future going. their grades in school are fantastic. my oldest is actually taking high school and college classes at the same time, so you scored so well, he was able to do that. so he would have an associates degree by the time he graduated high school. now he is struggling. he needs a tutor. he has a c average, which is unheard of for him. he is really getting down on himself because he is missing small things, pluses and minuses in algebra, small things through the brain fog. my middle child, christian has been able to bump up a great since he was intent or garden. and now he is also struggling, forgetting things.

you can't sleep at night because his bones hurt. he fell off his bike and his wrist basically shattered. that just blew everyone's mind. my youngest, he is still in with anemia. we can get is why blood cell count over four, meaning he gets sick anytime anyone sneezes. they are all bright kids and now -- they were on this path to doing really great things and working hard at school work and working hard at, you know, lego engineering and every thing than been doing, and now they can focus, they are in pain, sick all the time so they have been derailed because of this. because of the lies. amy: can you talk about the ofnificance, the director the pediatric residency program highly medical center, she noticed the kids and everyone were getting so sick. does this study and the state and the top authorities go after her -- she is in a city run hospital -- but she stands her ground and ultimately, they have to back off and admit that

everything you are saying, that she was saying with her study, was true about lead poisoning and all of the other chemicals that were hurting the children and the population of flint. >> she is fantastic. she stood her ground. they accused her of slicing and dicing data. the data was already there. it is the state and the county did not bother to look into it. a were in such denial that there was a problem at all, and she got her hands on it and said, oh, no, we have to stop this now. this is just the young kids. and the fact that we know no level of lead exposure is safe for anyone of any age, she is veering right now

lead poisoning down to their own kids. this is generation after generation of damaged children and we have senior struggling harder than ever. i am 37 years old and i have never had this many physical problems. for her to stand up the missed what the state was staying, it is fantastic. it is wonderful. amy: can you talk about your lawsuits? , can you talk about your group? >> we have two lawsuits, two federal lawsuits we started, one is a class-action lawsuit because people are damaged. not just physically, but people like us, we have gone through three water heaters. the caustic water has destroyed it. the pipes in our homes are ruined. our service line is ruined. facte property damage, the you can't use your water without fearing what is going to happen to you. you can't handwork is a glass of water and say, "it is safe, drink it." my sons skipped showers because they don't want to get sick. it is so damaging, something so life-giving as water that everyone needs, and we can't use it safely for anything. the huge thing.

we are trying to talk to people to get help and get a medical monitoring fund going because this is a lifelong problem. amy: this week, the city of flint, understood of emergency, what does it mean, curt guyette? isone thing i think it means it is a sign that democracy has returned to flint. this state of emergency would orer have been declared a nine months ago when the city was still under the control of the emergency manager. in that regard, it is very positive and it shows the power of democracy. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us, curt guyette of the a so you of michigan, and we willing to your reports on a melissa mays of, what are you fighting for? that does it for this broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

the big game in the world is the movies. it's the biggest game. it always has been the biggest game. television is the exact opposite. it's a postage stamp and it has to draw you in. there's no question that this is the age of images and it became that way because of television. and the movies, of course, have to deal with that. i think we're on the verge of a media revolution comparable to the arrival of television itself. annenberg media